The Drowning Prevention Strategy’s main focuses are on reducing death and injury due to drowning, and ensuring people continue to safely enjoy New Zealand’s unique water environments. ACC is the lead government agency of the Strategy, and serves as the link between Government, the water safety sector, the Minister for ACC and the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy (NZIPS) Secretariat.
Drowning in New Zealand
Drowning is the fourth highest cause of unintentional death in New Zealand, with an average of 105 fatalities occurring each year. Although efforts of the water safety sector have halved the rate of drowning in the past 20 years, the fatality rate remains high. Drowning rates in New Zealand are amongst the worst in the developed world, and are about double that of Australia and USA.
Swim and Survive Review recommends ways to improve programmes
An independent review of swim and survive programmes in New Zealand has been completed. Led by prominent sports administrator Alan Isaac, in collaboration with UMR Research, the review was commissioned by ACC and Sport New Zealand (formerly SPARC).
The review’s main aim was to look at how a more unified approach can be taken to teaching swim and survival skills, as well as make recommendations on:
- the specific roles and responsibilities of organisations involved in the delivery of swim and survival skills
- funding processes and approaches
- steps for implementing changes in the water safety sector.
The Drowning Prevention Council, ACC and Sport New Zealand will work with the sector in responding to the Review.
- Executive Summary of Swim and Survive Review (PDF 750K)
- Final Swim and Survive Qualitative Study - April 2012 (PDF 6.7M)
Research
This page links to downloadable copies of water safety research commissioned by ACC.
Download the Strategy and Implementation Plan
To read the Strategy, download:
- ACC2215 Drowning Prevention Strategy: Towards a water safe New Zealand 2005-2015 – colour version (PDF 874K)
- ACC2215 Drowning Prevention Strategy: Towards a water safe New Zealand 2005-2015 – black and white version (PDF 841K).
To read about how the Strategy is being implemented, download the Drowning Prevention Strategy (DPS) 2011-2015 Five Key Tasks and Initiatives to Reduce Drownings (PDF 72K).
Contact us
For more information, contact us at drowningstrategy@acc.co.nz
Last updated: 15 May 2012